Home Distillation of Alcohol (Homemade Alcohol to Drink) Using Potatoes Methods for Using Fruits If tempted to try some of the European use of fruits, the following is somewhat of a guide. Apple brandy is usually 60% apple, 30% pear, and 10% your choice. Run the fruit through a juice extractor or similar, no pips unless you enjoy cyanide ,and no pith if possible. Put the skins through the food processor/juice extractor as that's where the enzymes are that the yeast require. Achieve a specific gravity of about 1.050, dilute with water if necessary. Pitch a rehydrated yeast at a temp. of 25/30 C. It is very important to then hold the fermentation at that temperature. It will achieve that pretty much itself ,but just be prepared to help it keep that way. Any dry white wine ,champagne or sherry yeast is good. An excellent French brand is Lallemand (Uvaferm bc or Lalvin ec-1118), but you will also need to use a yeast nutrient (eg Fermaid, or try your local home brew shop).

Fermentation will take no more than 8 days (the reason the traditional fermentation takes so long is they use wild yeasts). Don't add sugar if you want this to be "kosher "and a fair dinkum brew. Sugar will raise the ethanol production but at the expense of taste/quality etc. Don't do any additions after fermentation has started - it can stop a brew in it's tracks. Jack adds ... the majority of flavor compounds in whiskey come from the yeast that is used. The aldehydes that the yeast contributes turn into esters on long aging. These halp to provide a better flavor for the whisky. In a fruit brandy (like plums)- this would mar the flavor of the fruit- It may make it more complex if it were aged on oak for a while- but for those attempting to make a clear slivovitz/schnaps type of spirit- the yeast would give flavors that prevent the pure plum flavor from coming through. I guess another rule for fruit brandy/schnaps has got to be: Let the wine clarify fully before distilling- no distilling on the lees !. A less traditional approach would be..

2 kg Granny Smith apples or Nashi pears 1 Campden tablet (for basic sterilisation) 6 tsp yeast nutrient 5 kg sugar/glucose Peel & grate fruit, add to fermenter with Campden tablets , and 3L water. Cover and leave for 24-36 hours. Dissolve sugar & nutrient in some hot water, then add to fermentor. Top up with cold water to 24L. Add yeast when below 24C. SG should drop from 1.03 to 0.99 over 12-14 days. Don't overdo the Campden tablets. They are sodium metabisulphite, and can kill they yeast if not fully dissipated by the time the yeast is added. The best fruit to use is windfall fruit (the stuff brown & lying on the ground), as these are higher in sugar. Sometimes when trying to make schnapps, you can reserve a little of the fermented stock, and add this back to the distilled liquor, to enhance the flavour. For schnapps, Jack explains ...

Schnapps may be made by fermenting 4.5 pounds of fruit in a gallon of water, in addition to 2 pounds of sugar and a heaping tablespoon of winemaker's acid blend (per gallon). After fermenting, this may be distilled (I filtered out the fruit pulp, but didn't clarify beyond that) in a potstill to produce a nice dram. The problem most people get (myself included) when making a fruit wine into a brandy is the fact that not enough fruit is used in the mash. Most wines use 2 to 3 pounds of fruit per gallon- when distilled they taste like unrefined sugar spirit with no fruit flavor- if you up the fruit to 4 to 4.5 pounds per gallon and ferment out to 10 to 15%abv you'll get something worth distilling. So far I've tested this on cherries (sour and black), raspberries, blackberries, peaches, and plums- all have worked wonderfully.

Tips for apple schnaps: DON'T use any sulfite- use a large amount of yeast with competative factors (lalvin K1V-1116 is the best choice) Ferment the juice in a cool area (to aid with a mellow flavor and to help slow up any contaminating bacteria) If you do the above, and stick to basic sanitary wine making practices, you'll be just fine. Jack gives an update ... After much frustration and experimentation with fruit (I'm known to every single orchard owner within 60 miles- I'm also well liked- the orchard owners get an average of 20 liters of schnaps from me for each fruit they donate- which they do by the truckload), I've finally nailed down this schnaps thing to a simple recipe. Here is how it's done: Stone/ pit the fruit after washing it and culling anything that is rotting/moldy.

Add an equal VOLUME of water, which has dissolved in it: (boiling the water sanitizes the fruit, making sulfite a thing of the past): Enough sugar to bring the final abv to 16%abv Enough acid blend/citric acid to drop the pH down to 3. Pectic enzyme: about a teaspoon per 2 gallons Diammonium phosphate yeast nutrient: a shy teaspoon per gallon. A good strong yeast like Lavlin's K1V-1116 or EC-1118- 2 packets (5gram) per 5 gallons. Ferment at the lowest temperature the yeast can work at in order to preserve the aroma of the fruit. Mash/stir the fruit daily during the ferment, in order to prevent a dried out layer of fruit from forming on the top of the mash- this will cause mold problems. After fermentation is complete, filter out the solids, and let it stand till clear.

Run it through a potstill once, collecting the heads as you normally do, and keep collecting spirit until you no longer like the taste/smell (best method- everyone's tastes differ), or stop when your hydrometer shows the spirit out of the still is below 40%abv. For those using an ice-water-wok still, freeze concentrate the wine down by half, and for every gallon of freeze concentrated wine, add a teaspoon of table salt, then run it however you normally do- ice-water-wok type stills are very odd in how they are run- it's up to the individual on how to make the cut. Just remember to separate out the heads. I have been trying to figure this method out for a while now- going by weight of fruit (fruit wines use 2 to 3 pounds- a good fruit mash: up to 4 pounds per gallon)- but it's always given very different results- going by volume of fruit is much easier- and makes MUCH better Schnapps. Rutger writes .. You should just pulp the pears, put in a little pectinase or other enzymes to break down the pectine (to prevent methanol) and ferment the whole bit.

Fermenting will also decraese the viscoity of the mash. Then press it, after fermenting, that is. Distill twice in a potstill. I made a lot of calvados and other pear- and applebrandies, and fermenting the peel and other bits makes sure you get the right taste. A juicer will not do it. For Poire Williams you will got to have the right pears, simple consumption pears wil not give the distinct taste. It will not be very bad, but not the right Poire Williams taste. Another contributor adds .. I had a glut of blackberries this year so I collected a large bucket of them and pulped them ( unwashed ) to give me three gallons of unstrained fruit pulp. I innoculated this with some actively fermenting beer wort and added a little wine yeast for good measure. Left it in a bucket to finish fermenting ( about two weeks ) and ran it though a pot still. As the still isn't large and over boiled a couple of times, I ended up putting all the fractions I'd collected into the last bath of wash and distilling very slowly. This gave a final product at 70%ABV.

Most of this I diluted with water to 40% ( BTW things are vastly improved if you use a decent mineral water for dilution rather than tap water ), some of it I diluted to 40% using strained blackberry juice. An odd thing has happened - the water mixed batch has produced a fair number of plate like crystals (a fruit acid or salt ?) which slowly settled of of suspension yet the spirit wasn't cloudy in the slightest. The flavour is good - sweet, oddly coconutty with a hint of rum and fruit. The juice diluted batch is in sore need of a little sugar but I'll add that when it's finished ageing, at the moment it's firey, fruity and quite sharp but not unpleasant - it goes well diluted with a bit of lemonade or soda. The second recipe - A gallon of rowan berries ( mountain ash ) washed, cleaned and crushed. To this I added three pound of honey dissolved in one gallon of boiling water, the water was added whilst still boiling. Once it was cool I topped up to two gallons total volume added yeast and left it until it stopped fermenting ( like the blackberry one it was too thick to get a reliable SG).

Double distilled in a pot still this has given a 70% spirit ( not yet diluted ) which has the light flavour of rowan berries with a good honey kick in the after taste - extremely pleasant and watered down in the glass to 40% it's easy to drink. Wal writes .. Normandy in France is wet and cold for grapes. Great for apples. So they make cider and distill it to make calvados which when aged in oak is not inferior to cognac. Cider is double distilled and aged a minimum of 2-3 years. Traditionally cider is made by fermenting only apple juice & nothing else. Cider recipes for distilling into calvados: Dry cider using fresh fruit - 4kg sharp apples Mince, slice, chop fruit Add yeast and ferment on pulp for several days until pulp has softened. Drain free running liquid into fermenter and press out extra liquid from pulp and add to fermenter. A straining bag is useful. Add water to bring volume to 5l. Using fruit juice/fruit juice concentrate - Use pure juices without preservatives An economical version is to use equal quantities of juice and water to make 5l, and to add 800g sugar.

There are 4kg apples (400g sugar) in 2.5l juice. For more about cider : Jack writes ... Hard apple cider is simply the fermented juice of the apple. Apple wine has had the sugar level of the juice fortified with sugar or honey. Apple jack is a freeze-concentrated apple cider/wine- bringing it into the 20 to 30%abv range. Distilling apple cider/wine will give apple schnaps- but ageing it on some oak may make a much better apple brandy. Distilling the cider/wine and then mixing the brandy/schnapps with fresh (unfermented) apple cider at a mix of about 50/50 gives something the French call "ratafia" (from the latin rata fiat- let the deal be settled)- a traditional drink at the end of a negotiation. In the Cognac region it is made with Cognac and fresh grape juice and is called Pineau des Charentes. The Armagnac region calls their version "Floc de Gascone. The Normandy region (where they make it out of apple brandy and fresh cider) they call it "Pommeau".

The mix results in a 17 to 25%abv sweet drink, believed to be the ancestor to the liqueur. Most grocery stores have unfiltered, no chemicals added, pasteurized cider (typically in a milk jug in the produce section), that can be fermented by pouring it into a sanitized container and adding yeast (a slow, cool ferment with Lavlin's K1V-1116 wine yeast makes excellent cider- adding a an ounce or two of French oak shavings (per 5 gallons) to the ferment also helps with the complexity- the cold ferment is needed to preserve the aroma.). You don't need to boil cider- if you do it can set a pectin haze- ever since the E-coli outbreaks pasteurization has become law (within the U.S.A.). Scrounge adds .. Another tip - if you rough chop the fruit and freeze it and then allow it to thaw, it gives up its juice with much less effort, the technique works with most fruit and doesn't affect the flavour Regarding slivovitz, Wal writes .. Traditionally in the Balkans and Eastern Europe plum brandy (similar to apple cider) is made from the pure fruit only, with no sugar or water added.

Relying on wild yeasts, it ferments naturally for 5 weeks. Alcohol content would be about 5%a.b.v. It is double distilled to 70%a.b.v. For this method you need lots of plums. I drank kosher Passover sliwowica (70%a.b.v.) in Poland and it tasted great. Had an amber tinge. Drank plum brandy from yellow Mirabelle plums in France and this tasted a bit mellower than from black prunes. This was a white distillate of 50%a.b.v. In the Balkans they steep whole plums or dried plums in the final distillate to increase the plum flavor and to give a bit of color. Homemade press for grape/fruit(cider) musts. See: ~kookie/frame.html and Using citrus. Wal explains .. Citrus fruits are low in sugar content but high in acid, so they are not an ideal fruit for wine or distilling except for the home winemaker, who has to make appropriate adjustments (see fruit wine sites). There is more money possibly in citrus juices and jams.

Fruits like apples, plums and bananas which have a high sugar content are used extensively. On the other hand citrus peel is used extensively for flavoring alcohol - by double distilling the macerated/infused peel in 45% alcohol to get a clear citrus flavored spirit (e.g. Cointreau), or by just infusing peel in alcohol (usually 30%) to make a liqueur (e.g. Limoncello). Sugar is added except where citrus peel is part of the botanicals for a dry gin. There is a lemon brew (alcoholic lemonade) recipe which uses the juice and rind of 3kg lemons, 2kg sugar, 0.75kg lactose (to sweeten as it does not ferment), beer yeast. I have made citrus mashes using the peel and juice to make my equivalent to Cointreau, as I have citus trees in the garden. For a 25l mash I used 5kg of sugar with either the peel and juice of 30 lemons or 15 oranges - do not use the white pith though as it is very bitter.

I diluted down to 50%abv and added sugar to taste (to remove the natural bitterness). I was pleased with the result. I have just planted a Seville orange and a Citron - the peel of both are used for flavoring, although the fruit is too acidic to eat. Prickly Pears ...Wal writes ... How to Make Apple Brandy – Copper Moonshine Still Kits - Clawhammer Supply Clawhammer Supply Your Cart This blog provides information for educational purposes only. All copper "moonshine" distillers featured on the site are non-functional props. All recipes and "how to's" are theoretical. All scenarios are fictitious. No laws were broken during production of the material found on this site. Products sold are intended to be used in accordance with the proper licensing or permitting procedure of the respective jurisdiction of the user. Read our complete legal summary for more info. September 18, 2014 How to Make Apple Brandy Apple Brandy Brandy is created by distilling fruit wine. After the fruit has been fermented into a wine, the wine is then distilled to produce a strong, clear spirit with the essence of fruit it was made from.

Traditionally Brandy was distilled in pot stills; today column stills are often used, as they can be used for continuous distillation. Brandy obtained from a column still has a higher alcohol concentration but is less aromatic than brandy distilled from a pot still. The style of still depends on the style of brandy produced. Cognac (a popular French Brandy) is produced in pot stills while many American brandies use fractional distillation in column stills. It is thought that wine was first distilled as a preservation method and as a way to make it easier for merchants to transport. After distillation, the clear brandy is placed into oak barrels to mature. Brandies with a natural golden or brown color most likely have been aged in oak casks. Some brandies mostly from Spain, are aged in a system where the spirit is transferred to a different barrel each year. After a period of aging, which depends on the style, class and legal requirements, the mature brandy is mixed with distilled water to reduce alcohol concentration and bottled. I will be the first to admit- I am not an expert on the nuances of brandy. I spend most of my drinking-time, drinking whiskey.

Though, I’ve tried quite a few commercial examples of brandy including Calvados. If you are a brandy connoisseur then you already know that Calvados is an apple brandy from the French region of Lower Normandy. Calvados is distilled from apple cider which is made from over 200 varieties of locally grown apples. The fruit is harvested and pressed into a cider which is then fermented into a dry cider. Once it is fermented it is distilled and aged for 2 years in oak casks, it can be sold as calvados. The longer it is aged, the smoother the drink becomes. If you have not tried brandy I suggest you start with one of these great cocktails: Brandy Sour, the Brandy Alexander, the Sidecar, the Brandy Daisy, or the Brandy Old Fashioned. How To Make Brandy In order to make homemade brandy you first must choose the fruit you want to use for the wine. Pears, apples, grapes, peaches and plums are all great fruits which can be processed into wine. If the wine is being made from berries, sugar will need to be added as berries are lower in sugar than other types of fruit.

Making brandy at home is a great way to capture the flavors and fragrances of summer and fall fruits all year long. Fall is a great time to pick apples which once turned into cider can then be fermented into dry cider. The dry cider will then be distilled into apple brandy. To make brandy at home you'll need to gather your fruit and start the fermentation process at least a month before you plan distill it to make brandy. Apple Brandy Recipe In order to make apple brandy you will need apples. 16 pounds of apples will yield about 1 gallon of cider. If you are planning on doing a 5 gallon batch of cider will need roughly 80 pounds of apples. If you choose to use apples you will need to grind and press the apples. If you do not have access to a press a heavy duty juicer will work, but it is not efficient and takes a long time. If you are like me (lazy) head down to the local farm and buy 5 gallons of fresh pressed cider. Once you have the fresh pressed cider it is time to start the fermentation process. Feel free to use a yeast nutrient of choice, I personally don’t add yeast nutrients to my ciders and they always ferment dry.

I have had great luck using wine yeast, WLP775 English Cider Yeast, and Safale US-05 ale yeast. I prefer the English Cider yeast and US-05 as they both ferment dry, but retain a lot of flavor from apples. Always take a hydrometer reading and make sure to aerate the cider before pitching the yeast. Keep the cider between 64-68 during fermentation for best results. The cider will finish fermenting in a week or two, take a hydrometer reading to verify the fermentation is finished. Once fermentation is finished leave it for a month to settle before running it. You can get real nice final product with a single slow spirit run in a pot still, but you can get a bit cleaner higher ABV product by running it twice. I prefer brandy that has been distilled in pot stills over column stills, as I feel the fruit flavor comes though more pronounced in a pot still. Always make good cuts, but with apple brandy we have found that you can get away with more lenient cuts as the apple flavor is more forgiving. Apple brandy goes perfectly with toasted oak.

Feel free to use oak chips, oak spirals, or oak cubes,- taste the product frequently as you don’t want to over oak the brandy. Once you feel the oak flavor in the brandy is at its peak, strain the brandy and bottle it. Do not store the final product in the refrigerator as a true fruit brandy does not belong there. Orange /black cherry with coconut sugar fomenting in a basement. Going to make brandy in about a month will let you know how it came out Posted by Mike on December 29, 2016 Can you add me to your list so that I can read the answers to the questions – which would be my questions ( From the UK) Posted by Malcolm on August 02, 2016 I run 2.5lbs of green apples in 5 gal buckets of brandy mash. I add a capful of yeast to warm water, let it set overnight, and then add 4lbs of sugar and yeast mixture to my diced apples in the 5gal bucket filled 1" from the top with the mixture and distilled water. This mixture sets 2 weeks.

I like to sour 3 of these mixtures so that the distilling renders a larger amount. when distilling I use the first run at 1gal of distilled output per 6 gals of sour apple mash ran (about 65 proof)the second run I pull out 2 of the smaller mason jars per 6 gals of sour apple mash ran (about 130 proof). the proof of the mix varies depending upon the temperature. in the winter months I get a weaker brew. Summer I get the best results. I dice up a few apples and line the bottom of the jar before filling them. seal them and let them set for a least a week. This gives a nice pleasant aroma to the brandy, and knocks some of the bite off of it. Posted by Joey on February 10, 2016 i plan on using a column still to run 5 gallons of hard cider. My concern is flavor. I want to avoid “gasoline”. Can I add cut apples to the top of the column to impart an apple flavor? Posted by Tom on December 09, 2015 wow everone heres so stupid they think if you age a wine its a brandy..

Brandy is created when (natural wine is distilled like moonshine.. just instead of crapy corn mash (corn and water) they use expensive wine and destill it.. No just becuase you have aged wine means nothing..still good shit but not brandy Posted by ky on November 20, 2015 Hi. when distilling wine to brandy do you need to degas it first? Posted by Lamar on August 22, 2015 I noticed in your recipe that you did not mention the amount of sugar or no need to add sugar. Posted by rick fernando on July 31, 2015 hi i have just come across a batch of apple wine i had fermenting for about 17years in my parents house and it’s a real nice smooth sweet taste what would this be wine or brandy? Posted by billy on February 01, 2015 What should your first reading be before fermentation begins? Posted by Greg on December 24, 2014 if using a one gallon still, when do you cut the tails, at a pint or a quart…?

Posted by Dee James on September 19, 2014 Perfect timing on the post. I have an apple cider that’s been in the fermenter almost a month. Now it’s gonna be a brandy. Posted by Robby on September 18, 2014 Leave a comment Please note, the design of our website does not allow us to respond directly to blog comments. Please email us directly regarding questions about products. We don't answer questions about recipes, procedures, etc. However, feel free to leave a comment or respond to comments made by others! Categories Calvados: Spirit of the Apple Michael Bateman posted Jan 22nd, 2007 at 12:00am Skinner/Veron There is no secret to making good calvados, says Claude Camut. "All you need is the bonne fortune of being in the right place, on the right farm, with the right apples, for 800 years." He should know. The head of a family that can indeed trace its lineage back eight centuries, to Viking times, he bears a name synonymous with some of Normandy's finest farm-produced calvados.

Calvados, of course, is the region's world-famous apple brandy, distilled from cider just as cognac and armagnac are distilled from wine. (Appellation laws permit the use of a limited percentage of pears as well, though most quality producers eschew them.) A well-aged calvados of the best quality, glowing amber and gold, with its mysterious and complex aromas of fruit and vanilla—its haunting suggestion not so much of apples as of the elegant ghost of apples—is simply one of the world's great spirits. Not all calvados answers this description, it must be said—not by a long shot. Much of it is crudely made, a tongue-lashing, mouth-puckering, hangover-inducing firewater. (In her memoir A Gift of Joy, Helen Hayes observes that "Calvados is peculiar stuff. Veteran French boozers limit themselves to a tablespoonful, and at that, end up licking policemen and setting fire to the Arc de Triomphe.") Its reputation has hardly been enhanced by the Parisian fashion for "cafe-calva," a measure of fairly raw spirit plunged into a cup of hot black coffee, or into its dregs.

(Normans have a different idea—the "trou normand" or "Norman hole." This is simply a shot of calvados downed quickly between courses of a serious meal. The alcohol temporarily arrests the digestive process, giving the impression of a "hole" in the stomach into which more of the rich local cuisine, which is typically full of cream and butter, may be shoveled.) If Parisians remain fond of the cafe-calva, though, they are apparently also beginning to appreciate calvados of the highest quality. "Calvados had been stuck with a very bad image," explains Christian Drouin, producer of Coeur-de-Lion. But, he says, "The sommelier of La Tour d'Argent told me he has been selling more calvados than cognac since 1989." At the turn of the century, 90 percent of all calvados was made noncommercially, by farmers, on the farm. Today, it's a mere handful, with a slightly larger handful coming from commercial farmer-producers like Claude Camut, and the rest turned out by four large companies—Boulard, Busnel, Pere Magloire, and Gilbert.

Larger producers buy apples, cider, even old stocks of already-distilled calvados for blending. Camut grows all his own apples, makes and distills his own cider, and ages it himself. His orchard is his patrimony. He waves at the nearby trees—they are planted about 30 feet apart, each pruned to just a few wide-spreading limbs and shaped so that they allow the maximum amount of sun to filter through—and notes that these are the region's traditional hautes tiges, or tall trunks. He could produce 10 to 15 times as many apples, he says, if he used newer, high-yield varieties of fruit and pruned the trees to a height of about six feet, so that they could be machine-picked. But he's not interested. "This would not produce calvados of the same quality," he says with a shrug. Each of the 25 traditional varieties he does grow, adds Camut, contributes something distinctive to his calvados. Blending fruit of varying degrees of sweetness helps give balance to the finished brandy. Some of his apples are wizened little specimens no bigger than golf balls. Nonetheless, he maintains, they all taste good.

(I don't agree, incidentally. Try one and you'll probably want to spit it out, as the first agreeable sensation of sweetness on the tip of your tongue dissolves into parching bitterness.) "In Paris," he laughs, "they think it is very funny we can make such a marvelous spirit with such horrible-looking apples." Calvados is made in delineated regions within the departement of Calvados (supposedly named after the man-of-war El Calvador, part of the Spanish Armada, which sank off the coast of Normandy in the 16th century) and portions of the departements of Manche, Orme, Eure, and Seine-Maritime. The most celebrated of these regions, and the one that produces the finest calvados by far, is the Pays d'Auge—famous for the quality of its apples and for the chalky soil in which they grow. The calvados of the Pays d'Auge has been granted an Appellation d'Origine Controlee by the French government, guaranteeing its authenticity.

Appellation regulations for the region require that calvados du Pays d'Auge be double-distilled in the traditional manner, aged in oaken casks, and not be sold until it is at least two years old. (Calvados labeled as "Vieux" or "Reserve" has been aged for at least three years. The terms "VO," "VSOP," or "Vieille Reserve" promise spirits at least four years of age, and calvados more than six years old may be called "Hors d'Âge," "Napoleon," "Âge Inconnu," or "Extra." In blended calvados, the age of the youngest brandy applies.) Because calvados, like all dry spirits, improves only in the cask, it is not bottled until it is required for sale. Throughout the aging process, distilled water is introduced into the casks to reduce the alcohol content of the spirits to a commercial standard of 42 degrees (84 proof). Many producers believe that calvados would actually benefit from even greater dilution. Calvados is the largest departement in Normandy.

Its administrative capital is the river port and former steel town of Caen—but the capital of Calvados, insofar as it has one, is the little town of Pont l'Éveque, about 30 miles to the northeast, famous for its odorous but excellent farmhouse cheese. Within a 15-mile radius of Pont l'Éveque, you will find most of the best producers of calvados du Pays d'Auge, large and small. Nursing cider into raw eau-de-vie and then into aged calvados is as much pure science as art. And very beautiful science it is, for the technology, both ancient and modern, is wonderful to see. You can enjoy it in its most modern form at Boulard's Cidrerie, located in Pont l'Éveque—a postmodern cathedral of a place where the cider that will eventually become calvados is fermented. The fermented cider is distilled into calvados, on the other hand, in a more traditional facility up the road in Coquainvilliers.

Here, the burnished copper alembic stills evoke Aladdin's lamp or the onion domes of the Kremlin, while the curving metal pipes suggest a Turkish hookah. The mix of old and new is dramatic, too, at Busnel in nearby Cormeilles, the largest distiller of calvados in the Pays d'Auge. The distillery is thoroughly modern—but all the brandy at Busnel goes into wooden casks, as much as 200 years old. "New oak kills the apple," says Busnel director Michel Hamon. "Our object is to re-find the apple." Toward that end, he says, between 25 and 40 apple varieties go into a typical Busnel blend. Étienne Dupont, who gave up a career in banking to take over the family calvados business after his father's death in 1978, uses a sparse ten varieties of apple. He also insists that his apples be very, very small, because most of the more intense aromas, he says, lie close to the skin. "I aim to achieve typicite," he says. "Some people like it, some may not, but you can't please everybody.

I'm not selling Coca-Cola." Tags: The Making of Cider and Calvados The Making of Cider and Calvados To preserve the purest expression of the apple and its terroir The apples are washed and sorted: just before being pressed, the fruit travel along a sorting table where they are verified manually. Apples showing signs of rot are discarded. If this has become common nowadays in cider making, it is still very rare amongst ciders destined to be distilled to create calvados. The apples are pressed in a specially modified membrane press normally used in winemaking. The grated apples are stirred frequently throughout the slow extraction at low pressures. In contradistinction to the more traditional presses, which provide a lot of pressure in one place, using this technique, the skin and pulp are uniformly pressed, sufficiently gently and slowly for the must to receive all the aromas the apples can provide. Cider At the end of the pressing process the must has already acquired the attractive golden amber tints of cider. After several weeks of fermentation in vats, the cider is racked and bottled.

Fermentation will subsequently continue slowly in the bottle, and the carbon dioxide that is naturally produced is retained by the cork to create the natural effervescence of cider. The faint haze and the deposit present are the proofs of this bottle fermentation. They give the ciders from the Domaine Dupont their unique aromatic complexity. Stocked upright in good conditions (less than 15°C (59°F) the cider will improve and its mousse will become finer and more persistent. Calvados Cider destined to become calvados is aged six months on its lees to enrich its aromatic expressiveness. This is the perfect time span to avoid any tainting (deviation/corruption). The distillation can then begin. In the early '80s Etienne Dupont went to study the double distillation methods used to make Cognac. He was thus able to adapt the golden rules born of a long tradition of excellence. He subsequently kept on improving them so as to obtain the most perfect possible result. The estate's alembic allows the distillation to take place flexibly and with precision. Double distillation is essential to receive the AOC "Calvados du Pays d'Auge".

( To find out more about calvados distillation... ) The calvados is then aged in casks: new oak casks that were only lightly heated for the first three months, where the calvados gains hints of vanilla, then in older casks for long aging, where its flavours intensify and become more complex. The most volatile alcohols evaporate slowly. The calvados progressively approaches its final sipping strength. ( To find out more about calvados aging... ) Distillation From Fruit Distillation From Fruit There is practically no variety of fruit that cannot be enjoyed in alcoholic form, from cactus fruits from the desert or berries from the Arctic. But not all varieties of fruit are equally suitable for producing spirits. It depends greatly on the fruit's sugar content. Eau-De-Vie This term is French for "water of life," and includes a wide range of colorless fruit brandies. Stone fruit, such as cherries, plums, apricots, and peaches, are most frequently used, but berries also flavor some of the best-known eau-de-vie.

The fruits generally have so much natural sugar that the mash reaches 40 percent alcohol content by Volume, or 80 proof, during fermentation, so extra sugar is needed. ()ne of the best-known examples is kirsch, or French cherry eau-de-vie, also called Kirschwasser in Germany. It is produced from fully ripe fermenting cherries or from their juice, without any additional sugar and alcohol. Plums are another popular ingredient for flavoring eau-de-vie across europe. In Alsace, for example, blue plum eau-de-vie is called quetsch. In Germany, Zwetschgenwasser and Pflaumenwasser respectively are produced from ripe or fermenting blue or red plums. Mirabellenwasser is a spirit distilled from ripe yellow plums in Germany without the addition of extra sugar and alcohol. Eaux-de-vio made from quinces and apricots are also enjoyed, low-sugar fruits, such as raspberries, blackberries, and black currants, are at the heart of some equally popular eaux-de-vie. Their low-sugar content, however, means alcohol must be added to them before distillation, otherwise fermentation will not take place.

Framboise, from France, has a mild, sweetish taste. Cassis, made from black currants, is combined with white wine to make Kir, the popular aperitif originally from Burgundy. Poire William is an aromatic eau-de-vie, distilled from Williams pears. It has a soft flavor and a sweetish scent, liopical fruit eaux-de-vie are produced from bananas, mandarins, mangoes, passion fruit, and papayas. Other Fruit Spirits Another well-known fruit spirit is Calvados, an apple brandy made horn the cider produced in Normandy in France. Under French law, the name "Calvados" can only be applied to distillations of cider vhich come from 11 specific areas. After distillation, Calvados is .lored in oak or chestnut barrels and matured for at least two years. I he older Calvados is, the more velvety and aromatic its taste. The color is amber to cognac brown. Calvados is a perfect digestive. calvados producers use a labeling system, similar to those on cognac and Armagnac, to indicate how long the spirit has aged in oak barrels.

Three stars means at least two years; Vieux, Reserve, at least 3 years; V.O, Vieille Reserve, or V. S. O. P, at least 4 years; Extra or X. O, Napoleon, Hor's d'Age, and Age Inconnu, at least 6 years. Other apple spirits, which can not be labeled as Calvados, are known as eau-de-vie de pomme, apple brandy, or aquardiente di sidre in Spain. In the United States, applejack is a domestic example of an apple brandy from Austria and Germany, Obstler is made from freshly fermented tipples or pears, or a combination of both. The fruit variety must be listed on the label, and most brands are between 80 and 100 proof. Users Reading this article are also interested in: Calvados - A Taste of Apples and Fall - The Pour - The New York Times The New York Times Food |The Flavor of Apples and a Sip of Fall Search Continue reading the main story Photo Calvados, apple-flavored brandy from Normandy, at the Barclay Bar in Manhattan.

Credit Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times IN apple season, it doesn’t take long for me to make the leap from fruit to cider to Calvados, which distills apples down to their elemental character in brandy form. I love Calvados, though I confess I don’t drink it very often. Yet when I do, I’m reminded immediately why I love it. Apple aromas and flavors burst vividly from the glass, in jagged flashes that seem to penetrate deeply into the complex essence of an apple. Clarity, purity, tart citrus, cinnamon spice, earthiness, mintiness: these are just some of the sensations I experience in a glass of good Calvados. My problem with Calvados is not the apple element. It’s the brandy part. The usual way of serving brandy does it no favors. It’s generally consigned to an after-dinner or late-night role, served in those horrible oversize balloon snifters that do little beyond emphasizing the biting heat of the alcohol. A smaller snifter, or a good white-wine glass, is superior for enjoying any brandy. Calvados in particular can defy our expectations of brandy.

Because it’s distilled from cider rather than from wine, it’s more rustic by nature than Cognac or Armagnac. Certainly it is by reputation. Serving Calvados in a white-wine glass might signal an intent to regard brandy from a different critical stance. Continue reading the main story “I think once people realize that they can approach these spirits as if they were wine — with more intelligence and attention to nuance — their experience will be greatly heightened,” said Charles Neal , who imports wine and spirits and whose “Calvados: The Spirit of Normandy” was just published by Flame Grape Press. For one thing, as the book persuasively asserts, Calvados has terroir. From region to region, sometimes village to village, the soil, fruit and customs can differ completely. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Calvados” is an astounding 700-page stroll through the history and culture of Normandy and Calvados producers, through orchards and cellars, down to seemingly esoteric details, like what a producer might have scribbled in chalk on a typical barrel. Mr. Neal looks at the multitude of different apples, from sweet to acidic, that might go into a producer’s blend.

Many people will be surprised to learn that pears , too, can be part of the formula, particularly for those brandies with the appellation Calvados Domfrontais, where the rules require at least 30 percent of the fruit to be pears. In truth, the presence of pears is awfully hard to detect in Calvados. The dozens of pears grown for Calvados Domfrontais are generally too astringent to be eaten, “the pear equivalent of crabapples,” Mr. Neal calls them. I recently had a glass of Lemorton Réserve, an excellent young Calvados from the Domfrontais region that is made predominantly of pears, and, while perhaps a phantom fragrance came through, it still tasted primarily of apples to me. Beyond Calvados Domfrontais, the appellation system unfortunately tells little about the many regional differences in terroir, though it does say something about production method. The basic appellation “Calvados” indicates the brandy can come from anywhere within the region, and that it need only be distilled once in a column still.

Calvados Pays d’Auge comes from the heart of Calvados country and must be distilled twice in a pot still, like those used for Cognac. It’s a more expensive, labor-intensive process. Even so, those brandies labeled simply Calvados are not necessarily inferior. Michel Huard , a small producer, for example, makes wonderful, complex Calvados. Still, nuances of terroir are hard to detect from the label. Occasionally, a label reveals whether a Calvados is from Mortainais or Cotentin, but not often. Calvados, like Cognac, is dominated by big producers, like Boulard and Busnel. Sometimes they can make good brandies. Boulard’s Calvados Pays d’Auge X.O., a $90 bottle, is fresh, mellow and elegant, but leans toward Cognac in emphasizing sweet vanilla, toffee and barrel characteristics over apple. Sometimes, a Calvados from one of the big assembly-line producers can taste manipulated, thickened with sugar syrup, for example, which is legal, as is the addition of caramel and the use of wood chips.

Among the large houses are more focused producers like Christian Drouin or Roger Groult , kind of Billecart-Salmon to Boulard’s Veuve Clicquot, to put it in Champagne terms. Drouin’s Calvados are always excellent, even inexpensive bottles like the Pays d’Auge Sélection for $25, and I recently had an unusual, almost butterscotch-flavored Réserve Pays d’Auge from Groult for $38. Most interesting to me are the Calvados made by farmers who grow their own fruit, like grower-producers in Champagne. Where the bigger houses strive for consistency, these small-production Calvados are often strikingly distinctive. I can’t think of a young Calvados I’ve enjoyed more than the Pays d’Auge Réserve from Domaine de Montreuil, a $45 bottle in which the fresh, ripe, juicy apples, with a little mint and cinnamon for complexity, fairly leaped from the glass. It was a tad fiery and raw, but I didn’t mind. Sadly, small-production Calvados are hard to find. Mr.

Neal imports several, including Domaine de Montreuil, Lemorton and Adrien Camut. Extensive Calvados selections can also be found in New York at the Barclay Bar at the InterContinental Hotel on the East Side and at the Brandy Library in TriBeCa. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Consumption of brandy in the United States has gone up in the last 20 years, partly, at least, because of the rising interest in cocktails. Barclay Bar, for one, emphasizes Calvados cocktails. For me, though, nothing beats the gorgeous, clear evocation of apples in a glass of good, unadorned young Calvados on a crisp fall day. A version of this article appears in print on November 2, 2011, on Page D6 of the New York edition with the headline: Flavors of Apple And a Sip of Fall. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe How to make Calvados – Making the Cider | Brandy Classics How to make Calvados – Making the Cider How to make Calvados – Making the Cider This entry was posted on September 7, 2010 by Michael Collins.

Most of the flavours in the calvados comes from the skins of the apples rather than the pulp. The equipment required for making the cider comprises of a grater tank, a press and a vat called a “belleron”. In the press house the apples are washed, selected and then crushed or grated. The pulp is left to stand for a few hours in a vat to macerate. This softens the skins and extracts the tannins and aromas and at the same time oxidises, changing the colour of the pulp. The pulp is then pressed and the solids, known as the marc is separated and sometimes sold as feed for the farm animals. Usually the juice from quality fruit is pressed once and the output will not exceed 65% of the weight, however it is possible to produce up to 90% by wetting the marc and re-pressing and providing a juice of lower concentration. The traditional press is made of wooden trays with linen stacked one on top of the other and pressed from the top but more modern methods employ cylindrical presses similar to those used for making cognac. It provides a juice that is both hygienic and retaining the colour and flavours of the apples.

Fermentation of the cider for distillation is continued until crisp and dry unlike that used for drinking and referred to as “cider bouche”. The fermentation takes place in large oak barrels which have thinner walls than barrels for ageing and the cider ferments on its lees, the yeasty sediment for six to eight weeks before taking it out of its lees. Some quality producers can keep it in the barrels for anything up to a year. The minimum strength of the cider for distillation is 4.5% but most producers will ferment it to 5, 6 or even 7%. Ciders for drinking are stored in open vats where the pectin in the apple will clear most of the impurities. Brandy You are here: Home / Library / Distilling / Brandy Brandy Information provided by Bavarian-Holstein Partners . “Brandy” originates from the Dutch brandywign, which means, “burnt wine.” Dutch traders introduced the secrets of brandy making to Northern Europe after learning about it in France and Spain. It is said that Brandy was spread to these western Mediterranean countries by word from the Arab alchemists of Moslem states back in the 7th and 8th centuries.

After so much traveling, one can imagine the variance among brandies across Europe. Brandy can be categorized in three ways: grape brandy, pomace brandy, and fruit brandy. Grape brandy, perhaps the simplest of all three, derives from fermented grape juice or crushed grape pulp and skins. This type of brandy is frequently aged in oak casks that help mellow the harsh flavor and adds additional aromas and flavor from the wood itself. At the same time, the original grape flavor tends to be lost to the stronger oak flavor. Pomace brandy results from the fermentation of the pressed remains of the wine making process. This includes grape pulp, skins and stems. Although the taste is rougher, it carries a stronger fruit aroma because it is not aged in wooden casks, if aged at all. Pomace brandies include such spirits as the Italian Grappa and the French Marc. The third type and also the most common is the fruit brandy. All spirits distilled from fermented fruit other than grapes is a fruit brandy. More specifically, most fruit brandy derives from distilled fruit wine.

Berries, on the other hand, are a special case because they do not contain enough sugar to make a wine with enough alcohol to be distilled into a proper fruit brandy. Instead, the berries are soaked in a high-proof spirit, which extracts their flavor and aroma and are then distilled once at a low proof. Examples of fruit brandy are the wide variety of German Schnapps, Slivovitz or plum brandy from Eastern Europe, France’s Calvados, or Apple Brandy, and Eau-de-vie, which is French for “aqua vitae”, “water of life”, which is a colorless fruit brandy. Cognac is probably the most popular brandy in the world. It is exclusive to the Cognac region of France and is made from three types of grapes: Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, and Colombard. These grapes produce tart wines with low alcohol content, perfect for making Cognac. The wine is distilled twice and then aged in oak barrels. All cognacs are aged in new oak barrels to create a mellow flavor and aroma. The batches chosen for long-term aging are then transferred to used barrels, in order to not further saturate the oak flavor in the cognac.

Cognacs can age anywhere from 6 to more than 20 years and afterwards are blended by the Master Blender to create the perfect Cognac. Make note that with different means of distilling come different results. First, it should be known that wine has already rid itself of many unwanted chemicals found in fermented fruit, thus requiring fewer passes through the still. As few as two passes would suffice and, depending on the equipment used, once may be enough. Just as important as the material used is the speed of distillation. If using an alembic, we recommend a slower speed. The slower the speed of distillation, in this case, the more gently and effectively the alcohol separates from the raw material and unwanted chemical elements. While a less efficient and slower process, this method results in a finer, more aromatic brandy. The reflux still, on the other hand, allows for a speedier production rate and is very efficient. Unfortunately, its speediness destroys many of the elements that give brandy its distinctive character traits. So, if wondering which method and still to use, first decide what you consider most important in making your brandy. Brandy can also be colored or clear.

Aging the brandy in oak barrels adds color, flavor and an even deeper aroma. Suggested fruit for aging are grapes, apples and plums. Brandy, in general, can be aged months to years and, ultimately, depends on the desires of the distiller. If using fruits such as pears, apricots, cherries, strawberries, or raspberries you might prefer not to age the brandy because these fruits are flavorful and aromatic on their own. In this case, the brandy remains a clear spirit (eau-de-vie). Given a potstill with a 50-gallon mash capacity using a wine with a 12% alcoholic content, the resulting pure alcoholic yield would be 4.2 gallons. Once this liquid is diluted, or cut, down to a drinkable level of 40% alcoholic content the result would be 10.5 gallons of brandy. Bavarian-Holstein Partners produce and provide the proper equipment to make all the above spirits, both the traditional and the more modern, efficient way. Homemade Apple Brandy | The Hip Flask Homemade Apple Brandy Some time ago, I posted on how to make your own peach brandy .

Linked to that post was a series of pictures showing the step-by-step process . Since that original batch, I’ve created several others, including one made from plums , and I even tried my hand at making limoncello . Early last fall I was feeling particularly adventurous and decided to see how apples would fare against Barbara Holland’s brandy recipe, the instructions I used for my previous batches. Apples were in season and I had recently purchased a new and larger gallon glass canning jar – twice as large as my others. That gallon jar sat atop the refrigerator since last September. It was marked to be opened on March 26 of this year, but I’ve been neglectful and let it sit for an extra six weeks. I finally got around to pulling it down and bottling it Tuesday. I sat down with a taste, my notepad and a pen, as well as my small square bottle of Yahara Bay Apple Brandy*, which I received as a Christmas present last year. How would my naturally fermented, non-distilled brandy taste compared to distilled, professionally created brandy, and how would it compare to my prior attempts at brandy-making?

Clearly distillation makes all the difference when it comes to alcohol content: unlike Yahara Bay’s strong boozy smell and taste, my brandy only hinted at having any alcohol in it (although, quite a bit more than my earlier batches of peach and plum brandy). My brandy was also much less viscous than my previous batches; this, I theorized, was due to the different consistencies of the fruits’ flesh – apples are less spongy, more crisp, and less soft than peaches or plums. The low alcohol content of the homemade brandy also makes it much easier to drink than properly distilled brandy: it doesn’t take your breath away when you sip it. Each is different and unique for individual reasons. Yahara Bay’s brandy is certainly tasty, but far too potent for my taste. I don’t prefer, generally speaking, sweet drinks with high alcohol content. Wine is acceptable because it contains only about 10% alcohol, give or take. So when it comes to distilled spirits, I tend to choose savory – malty, peaty scotches with flavors such as oak, leather, and tobacco.

For me, sweet beverages are appealing only when a hint of booze is present – aperitifs, a glass or two of wine, or any of my three homemade brandies: peach, plum, and now apple. Which fruit should I choose next? ~~~~~~~~~~ * Yahara Bay Distillers , Madison, Wisconsin. They make their brandy with “Wisconsin-grown Honeycrisp apples picked at their peak… Made in the Calvados style, this deep amber-colored spirit has the body of brandies ten years its senior. With a delicate apple scent and a powerful punch of heat upon delivery, it’s sure to warm you from head to toe.” Yahara Bay sells many of its products, including their apple brandy, at Vom Fass , a unique store in Madison offering “the finest and most flavorful products from around the globe.” Calvados | Kindred Cocktails Kindred Cocktails Craft + Collect + Concoct + Categorize + Community Main menu Twitter Facebook Recent Cocktails RSS Calvados Calvados is a type of apple brandy made in Normandy, on the northwest coast of France.

Calvados has had AOC (Appellation d'Origine Controlee) status since 1942, but its history is much, much older. As of 2006, there are three AOC regions for Calvados: Calvados, Calvados Pays d'Auge (which requires double distillation), and Calvados Domfrontais (which requires single distillation and 30% pears in the fruit bill). In 1554, Gilles de Gouberville recorded in his diary that he had distilled apple cider. In 1606, a guild was formed to protect cider brandy coming from Normandy. Laws were passed banning cider distilleries outside of Normandy, Brittany, and the Maine. Many different types of apples were grown in the region, and some were chosen for sweetness, some for acidity, and some for a complex bitter aspect. These bitter varieties of apple are inedible, which shows that their destination was fermentation from the beginning. According to the rules of the AOC, Calvados can be either column (single) distilled, or double distilled in an alembic, or pot still.

It takes 18 kg (around 40 pounds) of apples to make one liter of Calvados. The apples are fermented naturally and slowly, taking four weeks to complete alcoholic fermentation. The resulting dry cider is distilled into clear apple brandy, coming from the still at no more than 144 proof. After aging, Calvados must have at least 80 proof to be sold as Calvados. Aging in wood is a mandatory two years. At that time, Calvados can be sold as Fine or VS. An extra year grants the designation Vieux (old) or Reserve. At four years, the terms VSOP, VO, or Vielle Reserve can be used. For older Calvados, terms such as Napoleon, XO, Extra, or Tres Vielle Reserve denote Calvados with six years of aging. If terms such as '20 years of age' are used on the label, the youngest brandy in the blend must be 20 years old. For a vintage Calvados, the brandy must be from one vintage and one distillation. Interestingly enough, Calvados smells of apples in a strange way.

Some producers recommend that the best way to drink Calvados is to pour a glass and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes to release the complex aromas. The empty glass can smell quite strongly of apples in a way that the brandy does not. Calvados is a fantastic ingredient - it can be used to great effect in dishes containing pork or apples, and in desserts involving apples or pears. At Au Pied au Cochon in Paris, they have a dessert on the menu which is a sorbet of apples that come from the Pays d'Auge with a drizzle of Calvados Pays d'Auge drizzled over. Pommeau is an apple liqueur made by a process called mutage, where apple juice is spiked with Calvados. It is sweet and around between 30 and 40 proof. Some well known producers of Calvados are: Dupont, Boulard, Busnel, Christian Drouin, and Pere Magloire.

Some popular cocktails containing Calvados Spring Reviver — Gin, Elderflower liqueur, Calvados, Absinthe, Lime juice, Gentiane de Lure, Gomme syrup, Orange peel The Miller Shake — Añejo rum, Demerara Rum, Coconut liqueur, Calvados, Bitters, Egg white, Lemon juice, Lime juice, Rich demerara syrup 2:1, Black Cardamom Pan American Clipper — Calvados, Absinthe, Grenadine, Lime juice, Lime peel The Shah Sleeps — Montenegro, Calvados, Sweet vermouth, Herbal liqueur, Allspice Dram Domfront — Calvados, Triple sec, Orange liqueur, Grenadine

Question: Which fruit is distilled to make Calvados?
Answer: Apples